Hasta La Gadget!

The more Buds, the more friends?

(Credit: Budweiser Brazil/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

So you’ve had a couple of beers.

You meet a nice person of your target sex. Well, they seem nice, given that you’ve had a couple of beers.

At some point, one of you raises your beer cup to clink cups with the other.

The minute the cups clink, you are indelibly linked. At least you are if you’re using Budweiser’s special Facebook-friending cups.

I am intimately grateful to HyperVocal for warning me of this new creation, which comes from Budweiser in Brazil.

The so-called “Buddy Cup” requires you to use your cell phone to expose your Facebook profile to the chip that’s embedded in the cup.

Then, as you continue to drink and make friends, all you need to identify them (and yourself as being with them) is to clink cups and your two Facebook profiles will be linked for all the world (or enough of it, at least) to see.

This is social serendipity. Or merely slightly dippity.

Some might be engaged by the idea that all it takes to make yet another Facebook friend is to drink a little beer and touch the cup of another.

However, some might already be engaged. So the mere offering of cheers can cause a proffering of nasty word… [Read more]

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LOS ANGELES — Judy Clarke is in the business of cheating death, but she rarely talks about it.

Clarke, one of the nation’s top lawyers and defender of the despised, broke her silence Friday in a speech at a legal conference, where she spoke about her work saving notorious criminal defendants from execution.

Read More…
More on Jared Lee Loughner

PlayStation Vita sales in Japan have experienced some good growth since last month, and most of it is thanks to the launch of a new game called Soul Sacrifice. The game debuted on March 7th in Japan, and it sold 105,000 units within its first week. It is estimated to have sold a total of 180,000 units through April 13th. The game was developed by Keiji Inafune, who has told IGN that a sequel is already in the talks.

Inafune stated that he and Sony Computer Entertainment, the company that produced the game, are having discussions regarding a Soul Sacrifice sequel. He states,

“Soul Sacrifice is something I specifically designed for the Vita using the hardware’s specific features. To drive Vita sales even more, I have an idea for a Soul Sacrifice sequel. I’m actually approaching [Sony Computer Entertainment] regarding this project.”

Thanks to the game, PlayStation Vita sales have been on the rise. The PS Vita has been struggling with sales, and Sony had to reduce the pricing of its system in order to bring sales up. While that helped, Sony still needs new games that will make consumers want to purchase a PS Vita. Games like Soul Sacrifice, which is a new IP, is what the company is looking for.

Soul Sacrifice is a 3rd person game that resembles that of the Monster Hunter franchise. Your character is a sorcerer that you can customize in many ways. The character can be a tank, a melee DPSer, or a ranged caster. The game features 4-player co-op, where you can team up with strangers or friends to battle dangerous bosses. You are rewarded experience points and bonus points after successfully winning a fight. The game is strange as it allows you to sacrifice your allies or your limbs in order to cast powerful spells.

Soul Sacrifice is one of those games that Quantic Dream COO Guillaume de Fondaumiere believes will revive the gaming industry. In a recent interview, Fondaumiere stated that game developers needed to be more creative and experimental with their game releases. He told developers that experimental games didn’t have to be “unprofitable” and that sales could reach figures that were once perceived only achievable by well-known IPs. He says that game developers need to develop new IPs, like Soul Sacrifice, in order to get gamers, both old and new, interested in the industry again.

[via IGN]

PlayStation Vita game Soul Sacrifice helps boost sales for the game console is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hacked online deals site LivingSocial has temporarily frozen its customer phone support, blaming extremes of call volume from security-worried users. The daily promotions site, in which Amazon is an investor, admitted on Friday that its database had been compromised, with names, email address, some dates of birth, and encrypted passwords of in excess of 50 million users taken. LivingSocial is now working with authorities to investigate the breach, the company said in an email to users, but in the meantime has shut down its telephone support line.

That decision to shift solely to web-based support is one of resources, according to LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, who argues that a contact-form system will actually result in fewer frustrated customers.

“Because we anticipate a high call volume and may not be able to answer or return all calls in a responsible fashion, we are likely to temporarily suspend consumer phone-based servicing,” O’Shaughnessy told Marketwatch. We will be devoting all available resources to our Web-based servicing.”

Password and payment safety is always a cause of concern after a site is hacked, but LivingSocial moved quickly to reassure users that their data is, for the most part, safe. The passwords taken were hashed and salted – in short, encrypted – according to the company’s FAQ on the data theft, and no credit card information was taken.

Meanwhile, those who signed into LivingSocial using Facebook Connect have not been compromised, with no impact on their Facebook accounts. However, if they ever had cause to create a separate password on the deals site, that must now be changed.

The exact nature of the hack is yet to be detailed, though LivingSocial is actively investigating it. For the moment, the advice is to change your passwords for any other site using the same login credentials as you might have registered on LivingSocial, and keep an eye out for potential spam or phishing attempts that land in your inbox.

Hacked LivingSocial unplugs the phones as call-center support frozen is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve all spooned grub into our gaping maws at one point or another, but how about spooning a new soul into the vacant husk of American manufacturing? That’s what Spuni is doing with just a bright idea and hip-tastic technologies like crowd-funding and 3D printing. The New York Times dug into the story of Spuni’s ascent, and how it’s feeding an industry, spoonful by spoonful. More »